My Development Environment on OS X

I have had development environments on all the major platforms (Windows, varying flavors of Linux, and OS X) and I have to say, OS X wins by a mile. You can cobble together a relatively similar environment on Windows and Linux, but it never quite feels like it works right. On OS X, everything fits together nicely.

I had taken a few screenshots to help demonstrate, but they don’t do it justice. So I took a video with my new Kodak Playsport. You can’t really *read* what’s on the screen, but you can get the idea. Choose 720p for more clarity.

Software Featured

• RubyMine 2
• VIM w/ NERDTree Addon
• iTerm for full screen terminal
• Sequel Pro

I use Spaces to organize.
Space 1

• Browsers (Safari and Firefox with Firebug and Firecookie)
• AdiumX (IM)
• Colloquy (IRC)
• RubyMine

Space 2

• Terminals – I keep the project open in NERDtree so I can continue to work even if I’m watching a process (i.e. migrations, tests, or DB Import) I can still work. In this video I’m running a test db import and cloning a svn repository in git.

Space 3

• Sequel Pro – I highly recommend this piece of software. I can get around the MySQL command prompt as quick as the next guy, but most of the time, I can get the job done in a nice UI, with plenty of convenience features.

Space 4

• Mail
• Calendar

I think this system works very well and is pretty efficient, once you get used to switching back and forth between RubyMine and VIM anyways. Switch to 720p for more clarity.

Early Book Review: Metaprogramming Ruby

This book is so good that I had to write a review on it before I even finish reading.

The book’s description on the Pragmatic Programmer’s website:

As a Ruby programmer, you already know how much fun it is. Now see how to unleash its power, digging under the surface and exploring the language’s most advanced features: a collection of techniques and tricks known as metaprogramming. Once the domain of expert Rubyists, metaprogramming is now accessible to programmers of all levels—from beginner to expert. Metaprogramming Ruby explains metaprogramming concepts in a down-to-earth style and arms you with a practical toolbox that will help you write great Ruby code.

http://pragprog.com/titles/ppmetr/metaprogramming-ruby

I originally bought this book on a prag prog binge. I bought about $300 worth books after I decided I was going to catch up on my “trendy” frameworks. This was inspired by my work on a couple projects (Grails and Rails) , during which I discovered that my antiquated Java/.NET opinions were completely unfounded.  I felt incredibly stupid, and I wanted to make up for the lost time and knowledge.

I’ll start off by saying I think the title is pretty misleading, at least initially. Those of us coming from Java and the like immediately roll our eyes at the title. Yes, this is because we don’t understand it, but we’re Java programmers. We are obligated to roll our eyes at anything that isn’t Struts, Spring, or Hibernate. The first few pages quickly changed my eye rolling to “how did I ever code without this?”.

After getting a few pages into the section that describes exactly how objects, instance variables, classes, and modules are related, I had a HUGE “A hah!” moment.  My buddy, Larry Meadors, put it perfectly: “dude, that book is the one i was looking for…and didn’t know it yet”.  I’ve decided that the title should have been “Read this if you don’t want to flail about in Ruby”.

In any case, I’m only a  few chapters into the book, and I can already say I’m very pleased with it. It’s an engaging informative read, and I cannot wait to read more on my Kindle.

If you want to start, or are already writing Ruby applications, this book is a must read. Trust me.  Buy it.